Thursday, October 17, 2013

This is a collection of
poems about fairly commonplace animals including various pets, insects, birds
plus others that elicit some of their characteristics with beautiful
language. Though the poems are evocative
they are not overly profuse making them very manageable for elementary
students. One poem I particularly liked
was about a wood thrush, comparing his cry to the calls of blue jays and
cardinals which fills “the air with Silver and water, A brilliant language Of
leaves and rain Too rare for The human ear.”

Steve Jenkins illustrates
the book with his characteristic paper collages that adds depth and
dimension. The fox is warm and lively,
the bull solid and textured like harden lava rock as described in the
accompanying poem, and the firefly luminous.
I love Steve Jenkins work (as many of you may remember from previous blogs)
since he excels at capturing interesting and appealing aspects of animals.

My admiration for Barry Moser goes back a long way. Not in
person but by proxy through his art work.
He’s illustrated a lot of the big names in children’s literature such as
Jane Yolen, Cynthia Rylant, Virginia Hamilton, Nancy Willard, Barbara Nichol,
to name a few. Besides some of his own
retellings of fairy tales, he’s illustrated many classics such as the Just
So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank
Baum, Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne and The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Few illustrators do watercolour portraits of animals
and people like Barry Moser.

This is a picture book of
poems about cats, told from the cat’s perspective. Princess Sheba Darling is oh, so beautiful,
knows it and is not what you’d call humble about it either. Lily is happy as a
barn cat around the various animals but is a little embarrassed about her new
best friend – a mouse. Romeo is a gentle lover and there can never be too much
love in the world, right? And, then
there’s Simon, always playful, sometimes to his
own detriment.

Barry Moser captures their
personalities perfectly. Princess Sheba
is elegantly draped with her long white, fluffy tail.
Lily is totally enjoying her down time with her new friend. Romeo is all
loving softness, rubbing up against a willing hand. And Simon is poised to strike at a pair of
passing slippered feet.

Again, for the elementary
crowd, this one will appeal to cat lovers especially.

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About Me

I am the reference coordinator at The Doucette Library of Teaching Resources, a curriculum library in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary.
I love connecting education students and teachers with engaging and exciting resources for classroom teaching. I believe that resources that get me excited (or those that get you excited) are the ones with the best potential to get kids interested in learning about - well, everything. Finding those books that connect to the real world are the ones I enjoy promoting the most.